Andrew-372848

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful replies. I’m hoping the water contamination will be removed from my oil tank tomorrow and normal service will be resumed. 🤞

Yes decoders fitted, but I don’t think the temperature will be that low! 🙂

Must have missed those. Perhaps I could get my other better half to knit some - or maybe not. Trouble is if I move them somewhere warmer (airing cupboard) the lube will dry out. Never mind, they tell me Spring is round the corner!

It’s pretty cold up here in Scotland and a failed central heating system means the dark recesses of the house where my locos etc are stored are pretty baltic. So when I decided to give the layout a quick exercise before the HST arrives today, I was horrified that the locos stubbornly refused to cooperate. My 08 shunter stuttered a few inches and refused to obey my go-faster command, the A1 likewise and the A4 was having none of it without a finger prod or two! Poor things were in hibernation. However, after 10 minutes or so in the warmth things improved and after a further running-in session all was back to normal. Perhaps I need to move my collection somewhere warmer or maybe Hornby could add a new loco warmer to any forthcoming range of accessories?

Hands still shaking, just earned over 10,500 points! HST, coaches, decoders and a rake of wagons on the way.😊

Well mine arrived today from Rails. Following the Guide posted by @96RAF above my TT 08 shunter was under the App control in minutes. I also could add my Bluetooth enabled locomotives (set to DCC running as I’m currently using the Elite). I can see this will be a boon for those with many legacy locomotives who want to use the App, but for me I’ll keep it in its box until accessory control comes along. Ingenious device though.

Indeed, I did successfully trial the HM6010 with the App, but my plans changed and I went with discrete decoders for the points instead. Such are the pitfalls of learning on the job!

Yes that was my intention, but as @96RAF pointed out this functionality is not yet available. Instead I'll just familiarise myself with the dongle's capabilities within the App and continue with the Elite meantime. My layout is still under construction, so plenty to do.

Thanks. If I can get hold of the installation media I can easily install it and see how it performs.

Ah! I wondered what caused my sudden migraine!

I did have a look at RailMaster. However, I don’t have any Windows machines and attempted to install it on a VM on my Mac (desktop). It appeared to be working, but did lose comms with the Elite. I wasn’t too impressed with the interface, a bit last century!

I was in the same boat, but decided to fork out for an Elite controller as I struggled a little with the HM7000 App on my iPad. I put a Gaugemaster Ruby decoder in my TT:120 08 which works fine. However, I’m also going to try the legacy dongle with the Elite as I now have quite a few DCC point motors which require a fair amount of knob twiddling on the Elite!

It was preordered on 23rd January.

Just received my despatch notification email from RoS (Royal mail 48 hour tracked). So will have it soon.

Thanks for the quick response. I had seen those on Amazon, but was unsure as to their suitability being N gauge, but if they are good enough for your layout … wink I’ll order a couple and try them out. blush I’m using the Rails Connect decoders that come with the ROS point motors which I understand are by DCCConcepts and have an output for control panel LEDs, so I assume these will power the signals.

Hi Rallymat. I am thoroughly enjoying your videos and am picking up great tips from this thread. I was wondering where you sourced your signals as I’d really like to incorporate some on my layout before I move on to ballasting etc. I’ve re-read the thread, but can’t find reference to manufacturer etc? Many thanks.

Many thanks for the link, these look ideal. Direct order placed for a couple of the FSLB055 boxes, should keep me going for a while.

Space, cost and availability of smaller locomotives are the main stumbling blocks for me, although I am enjoying the process of building my new layout. I love all the controllability of a DCC layout which I have never experienced previously. To accommodate my TT:120 layout I’ve decommissioned my old Hornby Dublo 3 rail layout and used one half of the 6’x4’ board for it. This has given me much the same scope as the Dublo layout in half the space and as it is much less heavy than the tinplate track is much easier to pull in and out from under the bed! I started a spreadsheet to tot up my expenditure so far, but quickly decided it was a bad idea, most orders creep well into three figures! Hopefully I’ll recoup something by selling the Dublo stock. I’m not the most patient of people, so the concept of long pre-order wait times is a challenge!

Firstly apologies for posting to this old thread, but I just wanted to express my thanks to the OP (Rallymatt) for highlighting the potential issues with the wheel contacts on the 08. I’d just received my 08 and was really disappointed with the running reliability and heading towards despair when I came across this thread. The loco could barely complete a full circuit of the track without stuttering and failed to clear any set of points at anything like its true scale speed. However, after a good clean and slight adjustment of the contacts it is now running like a dream and can manage the points with ease, particularly crucial for a shunter. I have to say this forum is a great source of information and a credit to those who so readily share their experiences and advice for those, like me, who are new to the hobby. Many thanks!

Many thanks for that, glad it went well. I agree with you, the sound from the pre-fitted speaker is poor. I think I’ll have to live with it though as I daren’t open it up again. I did contact Hornby technical services, but apart from a cursory reply saying my query had been passed to the QC and Hornby Development team I’ve not received any feedback whatsoever. Disappointing.

Thanks for the tip, I'll bear that in mind for the future should I ever repeat the exercise. I'm struggling quite a bit to focus my eyes on the tiny finer detail of these models, even with magnification. I attempted to apply the accessories today and only managed the drain cocks!

This morning I’ve examined my handiwork and am happy with the result. The loco is now on the first leg of its running in and looking good. Interesting comments and views on the matter. I think I will contact Customer Services in any case to make them aware of what’s happened if nothing else. @moawkwrd - I’d be interested to hear about your experience when fitting the decoder, hope it's straight forward.

Hi Silver Fox. I am astonished that such a practice exists within Hornby given how much emphasis is put on attention to detail and the quality of the models. It’s particularly bad form to glue a component which is meant to be removable to fit a decoder, little wonder I had difficulty removing the tender body! Fortunately no real damage was done, but I’ll be more wary in future. Thanks for replying … Andy.

Hi to all fellow hobbyists TT newbie here. I’ve just received my A4 Falcon (DCC ready) and HM7000 decoder (digital version currently on Pre-Order), so my first job was to install the decoder into the tender. I followed the enclosed instructions to remove the tender body and fitted the decoder - so far so good. However, I could not relocate the front of the tender onto any so called “clip” so it remained detached from the chassis. On examination there just appeared to be one tiny peg to one side with a corresponding hole in the chassis, but nothing equivalent in the other side. Is this what is meant by a “clip”? Also the appearance of the plastic shell was strange, a little whitish as if it has been glued! Where did I go wrong, is there sone trickery which evaded me? I’ve remedied the situation, but am disappointed that by simply following the suppled instructions I could have possible ruined my loco. Thanks Andy.